Private Passions

Stephanie Flanders


Listen Later

Stephanie Flanders is familiar to most of us from the years she spent as the BBC's Economics Editor, untangling graphs and statistics and treasury policies with great clarity and cheerful common sense. She left the BBC in 2013 and is now chief market strategist for Britain and Europe at JP Morgan Asset Management. But she's also the daughter of the late Michael Flanders, of Flanders and Swann, the writer of so many memorable comic songs - like "Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud".

Michael Flanders died when Stephanie was only six, but she remembers the pleasure of pushing him around in the wheelchair he used after catching polio as a student. And because she didn't know him for long, she has spent time researching his life, combing through boxes in the garage, and re-discovering her father through his music.

Music choices include some of her father's favourite songs, including a little-known song about gluttony which is a protest against the cruelty of foie gras. She includes too Glenn Gould's recording of a Haydn Piano Sonata which kept her going through long nights in Washington when she was writing speeches for Bill Clinton. The speeches were about impending financial crisis and, as an economist, Stephanie has weathered many financial crises, able to unpick the deepest workings of both the Treasury and the City and explain them to a mass audience. She is not afraid to shake up the status quo: an unmarried mother, she challenged David Cameron on tax breaks for married women, and her blog speaks out about "the over-mathematization of economics at the expense of common sense".

The programme ends with a preview of a new recording of Donald Swann's "Bilbo's Last Song", setting words by Tolkien.

Produced by Elizabeth Burke

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 3.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Private PassionsBy BBC Radio 3

  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4

4.4

36 ratings


More shows like Private Passions

View all
Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,639 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,046 Listeners

In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,520 Listeners

The Documentary Podcast by BBC World Service

The Documentary Podcast

1,799 Listeners

6 Minute English by BBC Radio

6 Minute English

1,763 Listeners

Learning English Conversations by BBC Radio

Learning English Conversations

1,049 Listeners

Desert Island Discs by BBC Radio 4

Desert Island Discs

1,979 Listeners

Great Lives by BBC Radio 4

Great Lives

488 Listeners

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010 by BBC Radio 4

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010

147 Listeners

Profile by BBC Radio 4

Profile

108 Listeners

Last Word by BBC Radio 4

Last Word

46 Listeners

Ramblings by BBC Radio 4

Ramblings

163 Listeners

Front Row by BBC Radio 4

Front Row

128 Listeners

Soul Music by BBC Radio 4

Soul Music

292 Listeners

Bookclub by BBC Radio 4

Bookclub

244 Listeners

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2011-2015 by BBC Radio 4

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2011-2015

56 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

3,177 Listeners

The Missing Cryptoqueen by BBC Sounds

The Missing Cryptoqueen

1,003 Listeners

Americast by BBC News

Americast

720 Listeners

The Bomb by BBC World Service

The Bomb

1,002 Listeners

This Cultural Life by BBC Radio 4

This Cultural Life

119 Listeners

Young Again by BBC Radio 4

Young Again

46 Listeners

Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth by Gyles Brandreth / Plain Jaine Media

Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth

650 Listeners

Desert Island Discs: Archive: 2016-2018 by BBC Radio 4

Desert Island Discs: Archive: 2016-2018

26 Listeners

A Good Read by BBC Radio 4

A Good Read

43 Listeners